[Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) General] vdc530:
This is a guide I put together to help you guys identify all the battery draining features and settings that exist on your Note 2014 that rob you of that precious time with your tablets. Many of these features are enabled out of the box by Samsung and this causes people to not get the most out of their batteries. It can be confusing, because many of these settings don't have any explanations and others are just hidden from plain sight. This guide exists to enable you to get the most out of your investment and maintain a long life for your device.

Under the Connections Tab:

Wi-Fi: All you see here is the Wifi connections you have and that the tablet can see. However, hidden under this is an advanced section. Press the Menu button (On the bezel to the left of your home button), then tap "Advanced"

Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep: Make sure this is set to "Always". If this is changed then every time you wake the screen up it will go through the very slow process of connecting to your access point. It's been shown to save a lot of battery to keep this on "Always", not to mention it makes all your internet related activities quicker because you don't have to wait for it to connect. This should be set to "Always" out of the box.

Always allow scanning: Uncheck this. If left checked, then apps and location services will constantly scan and use nearby access points to determine your location. This is done even when your Wifi is off.

Bluetooth: Keep Bluetooth off, unless you're using it. It only takes a quick slide and tap to turn it on from the notification bar, when it's needed. Remember to turn it off when you're done using it.

Location Services:

Access to my location: Turn it off. If and when location services are needed by an app, such as Maps, you will be prompted to turn it on and conveniently taken to the correct settings page to enable this feature. A simple press of the back button will return you to your app, without disturbing anything. It can also be quickly engaged and disengaged in the notification bar. Aside from the fact that advertisers (Yes, Google is an ad company) use this information to track your every move, it's a major drain on battery all for the purpose of selling your location habits to advertisers.

My places: This can be be used to set a place for your "Home" or "Office" so apps and widgets such as your helpful weather app can use this information to show you relevant information, without having to access your GPS. This can also been done through the apps themselves, so check the settings of that individual app if you're not getting the desired effect.

Nearby Devices: Keep this feature off until you want to connect to another device to transfer files or share other content.

Screen Mirroring: Turn screen mirroring off. Screen mirroring is helpful when you want to use your tablet as a second screen, but during the 99% of the time that you're not using it, it's constantly scanning for a device to mirror. (Strangely, this feature once turned off, will turn back on when you leave this portion of the settings. This is possibly a glitch on Samsung's part that may need to be fixed)

Under the Device Tab:

Sound:

Vibration Intensity: The "Vibration Intensity" is used to control the strength of the vibration for haptic feedback or for rarer instances when vibration is needed. Play with this and put it on the lowest setting that you find satisfactory.

Haptic Feedback & Key-tap Vibration: Haptic Feedback & Key-tap Vibration is the small vibration you sense when you touch certain parts of the screen. Most of the time it's used when touching each key on the keyboard as you type. Turning haptic feedback off will increase the longevity of your battery, but it's a satisfying feature to have and won't cause too much drain on your battery. Of course, that all depends on how much you type. If you use your tablet like a type writer, consider turning this feature off.

Under the Controls Tab:

S-Pen:

Turn off pen detection: Check this. This feature exists to accept the use of a secondary stylus. It leaves the WACOM digitizer active and ready to accept inputs from another pen, while your original one is docked. If you have no intention of using a secondary stylus, then make sure this is turned off.

Motions: Used to control the contents of the screen through the gyroscopic sensors of your device. Tilt or pan the device to browse through a series of images or zoom in. Considered to be a gimmicky feature by many, it's also a major drain on battery life. Turn it off and use your tablet with your fingers like the rest of the population.

Palm Motion: Wave your hand in front of the screen and you can do a screen capture or mute/pause the video. Or you can just move your waving hand a few inches closer to the screen and just pause/mute by touching the device! This feature is achieved by activating a sensor on the front of your device that constantly watches for your actions and it's a major drain on battery life. Turn it off!

Smart Screen:

Smart stay: This feature will keep the screen on as long as you're staring at it. Great way to avoid tapping the screen every minute so it doesn't lock itself. But the cost at which it accomplishes this is considerable and doesn't always work right. I recommend you turn it off

Smart Rotation: Uses the mega draining sensor to watch the orientation of your face and adjusts the rotation of the screen. Like the other features it doesn't do it's job all that well at the expense of a lot of battery. Turn it off

Smart Pause: Similar to "Smart stay" but instead it watches your entire head to make sure you're facing the screen. Turn away and it pauses the video you're looking at. Battery drain galore. Off.

Smart Scroll: Watches the tilt of your head to predict when it should scroll up or down. Give me a break. Turn it off.

Under the General Tab:

Accounts: This is a doozy. Your device, if you don't change anything, will constantly, throughout the day, sync your information to the "Cloud." Even when your screen is off and you're not using it, 24/7. Aside from the privacy implications, because anything in the cloud ceases to belong to you under the law. This bleeds your battery on a whole different level because it's always working, at least once an hour, even when your not using your tablet. It's important to note though, that it also enables a considerable amount of convenience, so I will go through each bit of information it syncs and describe it to you so you can pick and choose what's important to you. Just uncheck whatever you don't need.

Google: You may have more than just Google under this section of the settings, but the one thing everyone has is a Google account under here. So tap on "Google" under "My accounts", then tap on your Gmail address, under "Accounts" and let's begin....

Sync App Data: The information you input into your various apps, the changes in each app's settings, or the progress you make can be backed up to Google's servers so when you switch devices and put that app on the another device you will be able to continue from where you left off.

Sync Calender: If you use Google Calender for appointments, reminders, scheduling or just organizing your life then you're going to want everything to stay up to date across all your devices and PC. Add an appointment to your calender while on your way to work, then make sure it appears on your PC and tablet as well. If you don't use Google Calender, then you do not need this.

Sync Contact: Turn this off. You're not on a phone. You're on a tablet. Unnecessary to say the least. However, if you were on a phone this would sync your contacts list and the changes you make to it so when the time comes to upgrade your Nexus 5 to the Nexus 6 your contacts will happily jump ship with you.

Sync Gmail: Uploads and downloads changes to your Gmail account. If you receive an email, it will alert you on your device and that email will be available to view in your Gmail app. If you compose an email on your tablet and save it as a draft it, will appear on your Gmail account when you login on your computer. In other words, it makes sure the things that happen and the changes you make in your Gmail account and Gmail app are synchronized.

Sync Google Photos: Backs up your Google photos to the cloud so you can have them on all your android devices, even future ones. Also, so you can view and have these photos on any device that has access to Google, like a PC.

Sync Play Books: Syncs information such as highlights, annotations, bookmarks and progress from your e-books so you can have those changes across all your devices. Stopped reading Catcher in the Rye on your phone? Just pick up where you left off on your tablet. (This won't effect purchases. Google will be fully aware of what books you have bought and they will be available on all your devices that use this same Google account. This goes for Play Magazines, Play Movies & TV, and Play Music)

Sync Google Play Magazines: Same as the sync for Play Books, except you can continue viewing Miss January's "assets" from another device without interruption.

Sync Google Play Movies & TV: Saves your progress in films and TV shows so you can continue on another device from the exact same spot.

Sync Google Play Music: Favorites & playlists created on your device will be viewable on other devices tied to your Google account.

Sync People details: Kinda confusing isn't it? Especially with Sync Contacts already an option. "People details" is a new sync service related to Google Play Games. It will be used to carry your username across all your games from a centralized location. So you can go and compare high scores and get achievements all from this service. Think of Google Play Games like PSN, Xbox Live or Game Center for your android devices, "Sync People details" will sync your progress, high scores, and achievements so they stay up to date everywhere else.

Sync Picasa Web albums: Picasa is used to organize, edit and share images. This will synchronize the changes you make to your Picasa images.

(I personally only have one of these checked and that's Gmail sync. Everything else is turned off.)

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Practicing Good Recharging Habits

In this short section, I want to share with you good recharging habits to extend the life of your batteries. A common technology most portable modern electronics share is Li-Ion batteries. Li-Ion batteries replaced the older Ni-Cad batteries and did away with a lot of the annoying disadvantages of that older technology, but it's not free of it's own annoyances.

Charge Cycles: Your battery, like everything on this planet, has a life span. For batteries it's measured in charge cycles, or how many times you can fully charge a battery before it can no longer hold a charge. Except, it doesn't just go from holding a full charge one day to being incapable of charging the next, it slowly degrades. The chart below shows you what you can roughly expect:

300 to 500 full charges before your battery can only hold 75% of it's original capacity

1,200 to 1,500 full charges before your battery is down to 50% of it's original capacity

2,000 to 2,500 full charges before your battery is down to 25% of it's original capacity

3,750 to 4,700 full charges before your battery can only hold 10% of it's original capacity.

If your battery lasted 10 hours when you first purchased your device, then 1,200 full charges later it will only be able to last 5. Now, it's important to note that the longevity of you battery depends on more than just charge cycles, heat also plays a role in degrading it. The cooler you battery stays the longer it'll live. Also, I want to clarify that if you were to charge your device from 50% to full, then that doesn't count as a full charge, but only half of one. In other words, if you charge it 10% every single time you plug in your device, then it will take 3,000 - 5,000 of your incremental charges before you're down to 75% of it's original capacity.

Leaving it Plugged In: You have two common ways of hurting the life span of your battery, aside from heat and charge cycles. One of which is to leave it on the charger once it has already hit the 100% mark. Li-Ion batteries don't do well with this. I can understand how difficult it is to remember to unplug your device once it's full, especially if you charge it at night, but leaving it on there isn't good. Take it off whenever you're able to!

Complete Discharge The second most common way of damaging your Li-Ion battery is to let it drain down to 0. Certain safety guards are in place to never allow the battery to actually be fully discharged, even though your tablet won't turn on and it read 0 before it turned off, because if it were to actually be completely discharged then your battery would never be of use to you again. Safety guards in place or not, DON'T let your battery level get too low before plugging it in. This will lower the life span, so make it a habit to charge your device before it gets lower than 30% or so.

The Exception There is, however, an exception to the No Discharge Rule. It is recommended, most famously by Apple, to allow your battery to fully discharge once a month. The reason behind this confusing bit of advice is that your battery has a smart sensor in it that relays the level of charge to your device. By allowing it to discharge completely once a month, it calibrates that sensor to ensure you're getting an accurate reading in your notification bar. I personally think once a month is too often and suspect that this advice may have an ulterior motive behind it, after all replacing batteries outside of warranty is big business for these companies, so I only let it do a full discharge once every 2 or 3 months.

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There you have it. Your Note 2014 guide to longer periods of enjoyment and shorter periods of charging. I hope you guys get a lot out of your device.

Feel free to share your experiences and expertise regarding everything I've written about in here. I'm all ears and look forward to shaping, editing and clarifying this guide to better serve us.

:p